Nov. 1, 2012
Trent J. Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0321
trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov
Kim Henry
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
kimberly.m.henry@nasa.gov
Katherine Martin
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
216-433-2406
katherine.martin@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 12-386
NASA SEEKS OPTIONS FOR SLS CARGO PAYLOAD FAIRINGS AND ADAPTERS
WASHINGTON -- NASA is exploring options for larger payload fairings to
enhance the cargo carrying capabilities of its Space Launch System
(SLS) heavy-lift rocket, now in development, to carry cargo, crewed
spacecraft and science payloads. In a Request for Information (RFI)
published Thursday, the agency is seeking information about payload
adapters and fairings already available within commercial industry.
Designed to be flexible for crew or cargo missions, SLS will be safe,
affordable, and sustainable to continue America's journey of
discovery from the unique vantage point of space. Initial SLS
configurations will launch NASA's Orion spacecraft, which will
sustain astronauts during space travel and provide safe re-entry from
deep space. Future configurations could carry science instruments and
other exploration payloads to destinations including Lagrange points,
the moon, asteroids, and ultimately Mars.
"This is a no-cost examination of the aerospace landscape to identify
existing components that could augment the rocket's architecture as
we move beyond the initial Orion configuration," said Todd May, SLS
program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Ala. "SLS can make challenging human and science missions possible in
large part because of the unprecedented size of the payload it can
lift. We are hopeful industry may offer some innovative and
affordable ideas about alternative fairing and adapter options."
The SLS will have an initial lift capability of 77 tons (70 metric
tons) and grow in performance through a series of upgrades, providing
more lift capacity and volume than existing launch vehicles. Larger
payload fairing sizes enabled by SLS could reduce experiment design
complexity and the rocket's high performance can decrease travel time
and, by extension, cost and risk of science missions.
NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is responsible for payload
fairing development for SLS and will manage this RFI. Marshall
manages the SLS Program for the agency. SLS will launch from NASA's
Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The full Request for Information can be found at:
http://go.nasa.gov/PphBhF
For more information about SLS, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/sls
To learn more about NASA's capability-driven approach for human
exploration in the solar system, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/NASAvoyages
-end-